. Banda

By HELEN ZULU –
SABMiller group of companies is scaling up its globally recognised sustainable development programmes with a set of ambitious targets to achieve by 2020.
Zambian Breweries PLC (ZB) corporate affairs director Luke Njovu said SABMiller had this year increased its material and financial contribution to women entrepreneurship development to K75, 000 from K35,000 last year.
Mr Njovu said the money would go towards the training of women entrepreneurs, the hosting of the national conference for women entrepreneurs and the hosting of the 2014 Women Entrepreneurs of the Year awards dinner.
He said during the flagging off ceremony for the Month of the Women Entrepreneur (MOWE) 2014 in Lusaka yesterday that the group’s hope was that this year more women would receive business development training, mentoring and material support during the MOWE.
“Our approach to women entrepreneurship development goes beyond the narrow approach that sees training as the major contribution to women entrepreneurship development and promotes a wide range of support mechanisms, including research, networking, association building and market access through our value chain,” Mr Njovu said SABMILLER also pledged to reduce carbon footprint of the entire
value-chain from grain to glass by 25 per cent per litre of beer and 50 per cent across all breweries.
Gender and Child Development deputy Minister Esther Banda said there was need for continuous education and training to promote gender equality.
Ms Banda said there was need for government through her ministry to encourage skills and entrepreneurship development for women.
She encouraged women entrepreneurs to take advantage of the multi-facility economic zones and provincial industrial clusters being created by Government and diversify their businesses and add value to their products.
“Women have less access to education, credit, land and market information and technology in comparison to men, thus in the entrepreneurship and trade arena, women remain marginalised.
Thus there is need for continuous education and training to promote gender equality,” she said